Speaking at the Interpol General Assembly in Glasgow this week, prime minister Keir Starmer announced additional funding for agencies to invest in extra staff and kit to combat human trafficking

Prime minister Keir Starmer has announced an additional £75m for new technology and other investments in border security as he vowed to stamp out the “vile trade” of people smuggling.

Speaking at the Interpol General Assembly in Glasgow, Starmer said the UK was “resetting” its approach to the issue of people smuggling, pledging to increase international collaboration to help meet the challenge.

The prime minister said the additional funding would bring investment in the Border Security Command over the next two years to £150m. The money will help fund 100 additional specialist investigators and surveillance equipment.

This will include “investing heavily in National Crime Agency technology and capabilities, delivering advanced data exploitation and improvements to technologies to boost collaboration with European partners”, the government said.

Starmer told delegates that an effective collaboration to tackle people smuggling would be just as significant as the deal agreed when Glasgow hosted COP26 at the same venue in 2021.

He said: “It is your leadership today which can help make a decisive breakthrough in this vile trade in human life. If together, we can win this war against the people smugglers, then this gathering will have achieved a victory for humanity every bit as significant as the Glasgow climate pact because you will have helped to smash the gangs, secure our borders and save countless lives.”

The Border Security Command will be provided with enhanced powers through a new Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill that aims to tackle organised immigration crime whilst providing for strong and effective border security.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said:  “Criminal smuggler gangs profit from undermining our border security and putting lives at risk and they have been getting away with it for far too long. Our new Border Security Command, with the investment set out today, will mean a huge step change in the way we target these criminal gangs. People smugglers and traffickers operate in networks across borders, that’s why we have launched a major boost to our cooperation with international partners including other European countries, the G7 and Europol, and why we are so pleased to be hosting the INTERPOL conference on tackling international crime in Glasgow today.”

The investment comes after the Labour government scrapped the previous government’s plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda, calling it a “gimmick”.

A version of this story originally appeared on PublicTechnology sister publication Holyrood